Sister Princess Saturday Report! No. 21 – Robot Problems

The wheels had begun spinning in the plan to resurrect the Sister Princess, but not all were happy about this.

Rinrin had slowly but surely amassed a small fortune from the money she borrowed from Wataru every so often. With that money, she set into motion a plan of her own — a plan she believed would allow her to usurp the power of the Sister Princess.

Of course, Rinrin could not breathe a word of this plot while she worked out the kinks. However, now that the resurrection of the Sister Princess had begun in earnest, Rinrin could not afford to be careful. She had to take some risks. So she confided in Wataru.

“Yo, Bro, I need your help with something,” Rinrin said.

“What is it?” Wataru asked.

“Don’t tell any of our sisters about this . . . but I’m building a robot,” Rinrin replied.

“Whoa, a robot?!” Wataru said. “I wanna see!”

“Shhh, keep it down!” Rinrin said, clamping a hand over Wataru’s mouth. “I’ll show you the robot if you keep quiet about it and you help me out with something.”

“Do you need more money?” Wataru asked.

“That would be nice, but not at the moment,” Rinrin said. “I just need help with a little . . . experiment.”

“An . . . experiment?” Wataru asked.

“Yes . . . an experiment,” Rinrin said.

“OK, sure, that sounds OK to me,” Wataru said.

“Excellent,” Rinrin said. “Just follow me.”

Rinrin led Wataru to her room and walked up to the bookcase. She slid a book off to the side, revealing a keypad built into the wall. She entered a pass code. The bookcase shuddered slightly and moved to the side; a spiraling staircase behind the bookcase led down to a darkened room.

“Let’s go,” Rinrin said.

She took a lantern that hanged from the wall and led the way down the steps. Why Rinrin chose to use such a technologically ancient form of lighting is beyond me. Perhaps she liked the effect of it — if I were her, I wouldn’t be able to help putting a bit of a scare into Wataru with some ambient lighting. Indeed, Wataru could not help but shiver a bit as he watched his and Rinrin’s shadows dance on the wall, which seemed slick and damp. A heavy layer of air seemed to press down on Wataru as he and descended the stairs, which appeared never ending. Wataru’s legs became more tired and wobbly by the step. His brain felt heavy and clouded, and his vision blurred. Wataru thought he heard whispers in the dark; his skin prickled as the voices got closer. Then, everything went black.

When Wataru awoke, he was strapped to a table. Rinrin looke down at him. She was wearing a gas mask and took it off when she noticed he woke up.

“Sorry about that, Bro,” Rinrin said. “I couldn’t think of a better way to get you down here. But you did say you would help me with my experiment, right?”

“What’s going on here?” Wataru asked. Or, rather, he meant to ask that. He was still recovering from the gas Rinrin had used to knock him out, so the question came out more like, “WHASH GONNNNNN ONHERRJJJJJJ” with no question mark at the end. Wataru struggled, but Rinrin made sure he had been strapped in tight. Soon Wataru gave up and leaned his head back against the table. He looked to the side and saw a robot.

“This is my pride and joy,” Rinrin said when she noticed Wataru looking at her robot. “I call her Mecha Rinrin. She’s going to help me become more powerful than I have ever dreamed of . . . but, first, I need to make sure she works. Hold on for a second, will you?”

Rinrin walked out of Wataru’s eyesight. He could hear Rinrin flip a switch, and then an immense electrical shock ran through Wataru. He felt as if he were being torn apart at the seams. Then, when Wataru thought the pain could not get any worse, he suddenly felt nothing. It was as if his spirit floated away from his body and went somewhere else. Actually, that’s exactly what happened — Wataru’s spirit floated out of his body and settled into the cold, metal chassis of Mecha Rinrin.

Rinrin shut the machine off and bounded toward Wataru’s body. She waited until everything settled and then poked at Wataru. She got no response. Then she giggled to herself and ran toward Mecha Rinrin. She flipped the robot’s on switch and grinned with delight as the robot started up and stared down at her.

“Ahahahahaha,” Rinrin cackled. “It’s a success! Mecha Rinrin has no power source, and yet she’s moving due to the power of a human spirit . . . I did it!”

“What is going on?” Mecha Rinrin asked.

“You, my friend, have just made a valuable contribution to my experiment,” Rinrin said. “You are in the body of my robot. And I control you!”

Rinrin took out a control box and pushed a button. Mecha Rinrin stood up and awaited orders. Rinrin inputted a series of commands and had Mecha Rinrin run around the room, do jumping jacks and back flips, and do a Russian folk dance. Wataru’s spirit was very confused after all this was complete. He felt as if someone had some sort of mechanized controller in her hands and was forcing him to do actions against his will. A funny feeling, that.

“Now that I know my transfer mechanism works, the only thing I need to do is figure out a surefire way to get the Sister Princess into here . . .”

“Well, now that you’ve found me, I’m afraid I cannot let you live, Dear Sister,” Rinrin said. “Mecha Rinrin, destroy her!” Rinrin pounded a complex order into the controller, and Mecha Rinrin slowly ambled toward Sakuya; however, Sakuya was ready for this. She ran full speed toward Mecha Rinrin and used her momentum to bound over the robot. Wataru was vaguely aware of all this, and he heard a commotion going on behind him after Sakuya leaped over the robot. There was pounding, screeching, and wailing; there was a sick squishy noise, and someone hit the ground. Someone groaned with pain as more evil, foul noises filled the air. The floor under Mecha Rinrin’s feet grew red with blood. After a few minutes, Sakuya ambled in front of Mecha Rinrin.

“She won’t be bothering us anymore,” Sakuya said. “And neither will this robot. Much as I would enjoy disposing of you, it’s probably best if we get you back into your body, and quickly, before the other Sisters find out what a mess I’ve made down here.”

Sakuya led Mecha Rinrin back to the table and strapped the robot in. While Rinrin had been a mechanical genius when she was alive and her guts were still inside her body, she tended to make her devices simple and easy to use. Sakuya walked to the switch, flipped it and marveled as the experiment went off without a hitch, this time in reverse. But the business of switching a spirit back from robot to flesh is an exhausting one, so as soon as his soul found itself back in his body, Wataru fainted. When he woke up, he was in his bed, with Sakuya sitting beside him.

“What happened?” Wataru asked.

“Oh, you just had a bad dream,” Sakuya said. “By the way, Rinrin transferred to some fancy school in America, so we’ll never see her again. Bye!”